Beyond the Horizon
by Detective Jules
Summary: Harm wants to help Meg but has no clue that his life will change forever.


Beyond the Horizon  
  
by cat  
  
Written for Lucy's challenge   
  
http://www.silver-snail.com/jag/fanfic.htm  
  
Disclaimers: DPB, NBC, fun, no money, and the usual.  
  
Here are the words:  
  
Horizon  
  
Bananas  
  
Hairspray  
  
Funeral  
  
Trash  
  
Angel  
  
"I wish we could go to Las Vegas"  
  
&   
  
"I love Peanut Butter"  
  
And here's the story...  
  
1148 local time  
  
JAG HQ  
  
Lt Cmdr Harm Rabb & Lt Meg Austin's office  
  
It is a day like many others, outside it is raining and inside Lt Meg Austin is sitting in front of her computer, buried in work. Suddenly the door opens and her partner walks in, grinning broadly and late as usual. "Hey good morning to my favorite partner of all times!"  
  
Meg turns around and shortly looks at him. "YUCK!" She then yelps and suddenly grabs the trashcan and starts to throw up into it.  
  
Harm looks surprised. "I'm glad to see you too." he jokes. No one ever had said 'yuck' and then started to puke when he entered the room. But he quickly walks up to Meg and holds her hair out of her face, stroking over her back. "Shh." he tries to calm her.  
  
After a while Meg has finally stopped vomiting and leans back in her chair, holding her belly. "Ughhhh" she moans in a whiny tone.   
  
"Aww Meg!" Harm feels incredibly helpless and can't stand to see her looking so miserable. "How about I'll bring you home?" he kneels in front of her and strokes her hair behind her ears.  
  
Shaking her head she protests. "No, I'm fine again."   
  
"No, you're sick, you should go to bed and get some rest!" Harm is honestly concerned.  
  
"I'm not sick!" Meg sighs.   
  
"Oh yeah, then why did you just toss your cookies into the trashcan?" He's getting more and more worried. "Maybe you should see a doctor." He then gets up and hands her a bottle of water.  
  
Meg gladly takes the water and gulps it down. "I already did."  
  
"And?" Harm is surprised she's even at the office after seeing one. "What did he say?"  
  
"Congratulations." She says flatly as she repeats what she had been told.  
  
Puzzled Harm looks at her. "Congratulations?" He doesn't understand.  
  
With a sigh Meg looks to the ground. "I'm pregnant."  
  
Harm can feel a knot tighten in his throat. That must have been the biggest shock he ever got. "You're wha... what?"  
  
"Pregnant." She bites her lower lip.  
  
"Well congratulations" Harm stammers. "I uh I'll dispose this" He quickly grabs the trashcan and rushes out of the office as fast as he can. *My Meg, pregnant!?!* The words settle in. He had to get out of there as he could feel his heart shatter in his chest. Mechanically he gets rid of the trash and doesn't realize anything that's going on around him. His mind is occupied on Meg and a million questions form in his head as he makes his way back to the office.  
  
After Harm had left the office Meg had tried hard not to start crying. She had noticed that Harm looked at her as if she had stabbed a knife right into his heart. Forcing herself back to work she didn't notice the tears she was shedding as Harm entered the office again.  
  
"How? When? Who?" He stammers again.  
  
"What do you think how?" Meg glares at him, ignoring the other two questions. "Not by holding hands!"  
  
"Yeah of course sorry" Quickly he sits down at his desk. "Who is the father?" He just has to know. A part of him just wants to kill that guy.  
  
"Just a guy" Meg shrugs it off. "One night thing that shouldn't have happened in the first place, a couple of months ago." She remembers how she had woken up in another bed, naked, next to an as naked man.   
  
"Oh god Meg!" Confusion, shock, frustration, sadness, all kinds of emotions mix inside of Harm. He doesn't know weather to comfort or lecture her. "Didn't you even think about protection?" It's clear that her condition was caused by a mistake.  
  
Meg has to snort upon that. "Funny that you mention it. No apparently we did not use any kind of protection." She glares at him again.  
  
"What does he say?" A fire burns in Harm's eyes. He definitely wants to kill him now.  
  
Swallowing Meg replies. "He doesn't know he's going to be a father."   
  
"But you do know who he is?" Harm's eyes grow a little softer again as he looks at the beautiful woman.  
  
"Yeah." Is everything Meg says.  
  
"Well then tell him. Apart from the fact that he is responsible for the consequences, he deserves to know." This moment Harm makes up his mind to support Meg in any way she lets him and needs him.  
  
"How about we order out for lunch?" Picking up the phone already Meg quickly changes the topic. "Yeah, Tony's pizza palace? This is Meg Austin. Exactly, a big Texas pizza, and can you put bananas on it too? Oh and I love peanut butter! No that's not a joke, I'm having a craving here and you're getting paid for it! JAG HQ You know the address!" She slams down the receiver.  
  
Harm just makes a face at her order. "And you complain about anchovies"   
  
"Hairy little fish now THAT is disguisting." Meg protests.  
  
"If you say so" He knows better than to disagree with a pregnant woman. He wouldn't even disagree with Meg normally. At least not when it didn't come to work. But disagreeing with a pregnant Meg? He knew that would be his funeral.   
  
"I wish we could go to Las Vegas!" Meg then suddenly exclaims. "You know, at the Holiday Inn in downtown, they have this big all you can eat buffet, and it's amazing what they offer there, I would so love to go there for lunch!"  
  
Harm just nods. He couldn't help but picture himself with Meg in one of the many wedding chapels as she mentioned Vegas. "Lunch buffet interesting." He mumbles.  
  
With a sigh Meg looks at Harm. "You're right, the father deserves to know. But he probably doesn't even remember we slept together in the first place. I mean, I don't remember it either, I just remember how I woke up in his bed. And apart from that if I told him, he could get into trouble big time. He wasn't supposed to sleep with me." She tells him.  
  
"Geez Meg, please don't tell me that guy is married!" He doesn't know anymore what part of this is shocking him the most. That his angel had had an one night stand, that she got pregnant or that she's even covering for the jerk, who should at least be man enough to pay for what he did.   
  
"Married?" Meg laughs. "God no! I'd rather use green hairspray before I'd get involved with a married man."  
  
"Green hairspray? Eww!" Harm chuckles, that was the weirdest comparison he had ever heard. "Anyways whoever it is and whyever it shouldn't have happened..." Harm had realized she wouldn't spill that to him, not yet at least, "...tell him. He has to know. Because of many reasons."  
  
Meg nods. "I know. Oh god this is going to be hard" She swallows. "I have no idea what to say!"  
  
"Well, tell him what you think, how you feel, everything!" Harm smiles. "Ok, pretend I'm the father. Practice. You're coming to talk to me now." He suggests. "Hey Meg, haven't seen you in a while." Pretending he's a guy Meg had met at a bar or somewhere else he talks to her.  
  
She laughs upon that. "He so wouldn't say that!"  
  
Rolling his eyes Harm growls a little. "Just pretend I'm that guy I just want it to make easier for you to spill it, ok?"   
  
"Ok, ok so I just came in, right?" *God this is so hilarious!* She thinks.  
  
"Yep." Harm nods.  
  
"Hey we have to talk." Biting her lip Meg gets up and pulls a chair close to Harm and sits down again.  
  
"Sure, what's up." Harm forces a grin. Somehow deep inside he wishes this wasn't just pretending.  
  
Meg looks at her computer, where meanwhile the screensaver had started to run. A picture of a beautiful sunset at the horizon is visible. She turns around to face Harm again. "How shall I start this?"   
  
"Try at the beginning, what's wrong Meg?" He has no idea how that guy would respond so he just says what he would say in his place.  
  
"2 months ago we went out to get a couple of drinks. But the couple of drinks got more and more and honestly I have no idea how much we had in the end, the last thing I remember is how we were laughing and emptying a bottle of Tequila just between the two of us."  
  
Harm nods. "Yeah, I remember that too. That was a great evening." He actually remembers something like that with her too. "Just after you got promoted and we decided to celebrate that a little." For a moment he forgets that he's pretending to be someone else. "Oops, sorry, scratch that last part."  
  
Meg nods again. "Well, so we were at that bar and apparently got so wasted that we both don't remember anything that happened that night. At least you never mentioned it to me, so I'm guessing you don't remember it either." She goes on.  
  
"No I don't, sorry. Meg what are you talking about?" Faking not to have a clue what she was going to tell him he gives her a puzzled look.  
  
"I'm saying that I'm pregnant." Meg looks deep into his eyes.  
  
"You're WHAT?" He runs his hands through his hair. "Sure I'm the father? I mean, we don't know for sure something happened!" That's how he thinks that jerk would react.  
  
"I'm 2 months pregnant, the doctor counted it back to that night and even though I don't remember the sex..." Meg trails off and takes hold of Harm's hands."Harm, I remember how I woke up in your bed. I silently sneaked away because I knew what we did was wrong. I figured that would be the best way to just pretend it never happened. But seeing I'm pregnant now... Look, I want you to understand that I don't expect anything from you. But I also want you to know that I'm going to have this baby and I thought you deserve to know." Her eyes wander to the ground again.  
  
"Hey, that's great! See that was easy. I have no idea how he's going to react, but I definitely think you should tell him like this! And no matter what happens I want you to know I'm always here for you!" He tilts her chin up and smiles at her.  
  
Meg shakes her head. "No Harm you don't understand, I woke up in YOUR bed." She emphasizes.  
  
"You. we. Oh god Meg!" On the one hand his heart jumps with joy as the meaning of her words downs on him and on the other hand he's incredibly shocked. In a good way though. He jumps up and takes her hand and pulls her into a tight hug and then spins her around. "We're having a baby!" He exclaims happily and then brushes his lips against hers, not sure how she'd react on it since she had called their night together one night stand that never should have happened.  
  
Meg turns away from him. "Harm please, I don't expect you to marry me or anything! It just happened and I don't know." She doesn't want him to pay for a mistake they both made when they were inebriated.   
  
"So it doesn't mean a thing to you?" His voice is sad and hurt.  
  
"I don't even remember it Harm!" She wonders what's going on.  
  
"I don't remember it either, but it still means the world to me!" Harm protests. "You mean the world to me. You and the baby!" He adds the last part with a loving smile. "I love you Meg, I guess you don't return these feelings though, but I thought you should know." His voice is filled with sadness and pain again.   
  
Upon hearing that Meg turns back around to Harm. "You do? You're not just saying that now?"   
  
"Look at me. Look me in the eyes. If you don't believe my words, believe the way I look at you!" And indeed all his love is mirrored in his eyes.  
  
For the first time Meg recognizes that look as love. "Harm I love you too! I love you so much!" Her eyes lock with his, returning the emotion filled gaze.   
  
That were the last words spoken for a while as their heads moved closer and their lips locked in a love and passion filled kiss.  
  
THE END! 


End file.
